BIG sections of Troy Buswell’s research report justifying his expensive taxpayer-funded trip to Europe and Asia to study light rail last year are plagiarised from public websites and brochures.

A simple check using ­Google reveals many parts of the disgraced former treasurer’s 20-page report have been lifted word for word from the internet.

Mr Buswell, who resigned as WA treasurer after revelations he had smashed into four cars in Subiaco while driving home in his ministerial car from a February wedding, supposedly spent three months working on the research paper – which was handed in one month overdue.

Some of the plagiarism is so blatant he did not even bother to update facts.

For example, he refers to Bombardier being part of a consortium “selected in May” to build the Gold Coast light rail system, when it should be May 2011.

“We would not just fail a student who did this, but they would be expelled,” he said.

The university’s School of Media head Joseph Fernandez said the report was “slipshod”. and would see serious consequences in a tertiary environment.

“If Mr Buswell does not respond to the questions raised by this slipshod report on his study tour the Premier should take the lead and demand a full explanation from Mr Buswell and take appropriate action,” he said.

The report has no references, no minutes or specific dates for meetings with officials and no details of discussions held.

Much of the 20-page report is also taken up by captionless photographs that come with no explanation as to what is in the picture, or why it is significant.

Mr Buswell makes six short findings on light rail, which he could have deduced from his office in Perth.

One of the “key findings” is how “light rail can form a very effective component of an integrated public transport system”.

Another is that “over time” light rail “can become an embedded part of the community”.

Opposition transport spokesman Ken Travers last night said Mr Buswell “should have stayed home and saved taxpayers a small fortune”.

“The truth is (Mr Buswell) could have put this report together without ever leaving his office in West Perth,” he said.

The Sunday Times asked Jemma Green, a transport expert from Curtin University’s Sustainable Policy Institute, to critique the report.

She said it resembled an “early draft”.

“The report lacks any detail on how much these foreign rail programs cost, how they were financed and what value was created as a result of them,” she said.

The Sunday Times revealed last week the trip cost taxpayers almost $14,000 on hotels, meals, laundry and airport transfers.

Where did Troy Buswell get his report from?Source:Supplied

Premier Colin Barnett has so far refused to release the full cost of the August-September trip, but said Mr Buswell would be made to explain the credit card bill. Yesterday he refused to comment on the study report.

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